Commentary by Michael Wade on Leadership, Ethics, Management, and Life

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Workplace Playgrounds

An amazing number of workplace problems stem from adults failing to act like, well, adults.

I've seen workplaces that have high schoolish cliques and others where grade schoolish crudity is flaunted. People who would not tolerate unprofessional behavior for a second in technical matters can have a surprising willingness to stand by as their employees are subjected to playground pranks or bullying.

The stuff that is simply silly is not the problem. The behavior that is cruel is. Back-bitting, malicious gossip, flat-out harassment, cruel teasing, withholding information, shunning, and mean nicknames are just some of the childish conduct that rips apart teams, creates stress, and skews the moral compasses of the perpetrators. The conduct is meant to exclude and it is lethal.

I've mentioned it here before but there's much to be said for the Colorado hotel whose slogan is "Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."

3 Comments:

One of my favorite books was "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum.For instance: "Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody."The sandbox gets bigger but the rules are the same.

Now I seen why Debtroit's in the shape it's in. It's a total disgrace to the city officals acting in the matter which they were. Detroit was my city also once, but not any more, I don't want any part of it anymore. I have seen the LIGHT.